Obama: Billions for Clean Tech VC Investment Fund

Source: New York Times

Senator Barack Obama today proposed that the federal government spend $150 billion over 10 years to promote alternative energy and create several million jobs.

The investment plan was mentioned in a speech delivered in Michigan aimed at voters frustrated by the region’s disappearing manufacturing sector.

But his words reverberated in Silicon Valley, which has been lobbying hard for more federal investment in clean-technology projects.

As part of his plan, the Illinois Democrat pledged that, if president, he would invest $10 billion a year in creating what he called a “Clean Technologies Deployment Venture Capital Fund.” Such a fund, he said, would help finance companies involved in the alternative energy sector.

Just what that might mean is not entirely clear (more on that below). But even in the abstract, it was met with enthusiasm by some Northern California venture capitalists. MORE at headline.